FOREWORD

[ix]

FOREWORD

This book is in many ways
unique. Nothing like it has before been published, as far as I know. It
contains two series of talks by one of the Masters of the Wisdom to some
members of His inner group, and also a series of personal instructions, given
by Him to a group of His disciples. Many of these people were unknown to me
when they were brought to my notice; some of them I have since met; others I
have never met; some I knew well and could understand why they had been chosen,
knowing that their dedication to the life of the spirit and their love of
humanity warranted the choice; one or two were regarded by me as most
unsuitable choices but later I altered my point of view and recognised that a
wiser mind than mine was responsible for their inclusion in the Ashram. I
learnt also that ancient relationships, established in other lives, were also
conditioning factors and that some had earned the right to inclusion, even if
their spiritual attainments seemed inadequate to the onlooker.

A good deal of the teaching
given is new in form and some of it is new in fact. One point emerges with
clarity and that is: the old rules to which disciples have been subjected down
the centuries still hold good, but are susceptible of fresh and often different
interpretations. The training to be given during the coming New Age will be
fitted to their more advanced development. The evolutionary progress—from
century to century—presents a steadily ripening and developing human mind upon
which the Master can work. The standard of discipleship is consequently as
steadily rising. This, in itself, demands a new approach, a wider presentation
of truth and the permitting of a greater freedom of action upon the part of the
disciple. The time element is also different. In the old days, the Master gave
His disciple a hint or a point upon which to ponder and meditate or He might
indicate some need for changed habits of thought. Then the disciple went away—[x] sometimes for years or an entire lifetime—and
reflected and thought and attempted to alter his attitudes without any
particular sense of pressure. Today, in our speedier times and when the demand
of humanity for help is so outstanding, the hint has given place to explanation
and the disciple is trusted with information, hitherto withheld. He is regarded
as having reached a stage in his unfoldment at which he can make his own
decisions and proceed with rapidity, if he so chooses.

Certain definite reasons have
prompted me to make these instructions available for aspirants everywhere after
requesting permission from those who received them. One is the need to bring to
the attention of the general public the fact that the Hierarchy exists,
that its Members are interested in human progress and that there is a
definitely planned system of training offered by Them which can lead a man out
of the human kingdom into the Kingdom of God; that this moving forward upon the
Path of Evolution out of the fourth kingdom into the fifth can be brought about
consciously, scientifically and with the full consent and cooperation of the
aspirant. The day has now come when belief can (and does) give place to
knowledge—a knowledge gained through the acceptance of a hypothesis in the
first place, a conviction that this hypothesis is backed by adequate testimony
and planned experience. The reasoning mind of the disciple can then take the
successes and failures he encounters in his training and learn the intended
lessons; he finds that progress upon the Path brings a man into closer,
conscious touch with Those Who have walked this Way before and that the Way
into the Hierarchy is a way of discipline, of increasing enlightenment, of
service to his fellowmen and of a growing responsiveness to contacts and to
individuals of which the average human being knows nothing.

A second reason for
publishing this book is the need to change the point of view of the general
public as to the nature of these Masters Who take pupils and Who, whilst giving
them the training needed to enable them to take initiation (as it is called),
reach the mass of men through their means. So much stupidity has been
demonstrated in writing and talking about the relationship of Master and
disciple that it was felt both by [xi] me and
this group of disciples that the sanity, the breadth of vision, the lack of
authority, and the understanding evidenced by a Member of the Hierarchy could
do nothing but good. We found also that He was quite ready for His instructions
to be made public.

A third reason was the desire
to make clear a point which is continually emphasised by the Tibetan as it is
by all Masters and which is of major importance to every aspirant. Only those
who are beginning to come under the influence and the control of their own
souls and are, therefore, mentally focussed and attuned, are eligible for the
training offered by the Hierarchy. Devotion, emotional reactions and sentiment
are not enough. Esoteric training is also an impersonal matter; it is concerned
with the development of soul consciousness and with the expansion of that
consciousness to include, and not exclude, all forms of life through which
pulses the life and love of God. The true disciple is ever inclusive and never
exclusive. It is this inclusiveness which is the hallmark of all true
esotericists. Where it is lacking you may have an aspirant but you do not have
a true disciple. There is far too much exclusiveness extant today among
esotericists and in occult schools and too much theological separativeness. It
has been felt that this Book of Instructions may do much to offset this evil
tendency and may help to open the door still wider into the Kingdom of God.

Much in this book is new.
Much is very old, tried and proved. None of the people chosen for instruction
and for inclusion in the Ashram of the Master are saints or perfect. All are,
however, true aspirants and will go on to the very end in spite of pain and
sorrow, discipline, success, failure, joy and a spiritual recognition of almost
unattainable goals. Some have been on this Path of Accepted Discipleship
(technically understood) for many lives. Some are venturing for the first
time—consciously and with deliberate effort—to tread the Way to God. All are
mystics, learning to be occultists. All are normal people, living useful,
modern lives in many different countries in the world. Some are orthodox
Protestant Christians by profession; others are Roman Catholics; still others
are Christian Scientists or belong to one or other of the more mental cults; [xii] some are quite unattached and free from affiliations.
None of them regards his particular brand of faith or his particular religious
background as essential to salvation; he knows that the only essential is
belief in the spiritual realities and in the essential divinity of mankind.
This belief necessarily involves a heart full of love, a mind open and
illumined by right orientation to truth and a life dedicated to service and to
the alleviation of human sufferings. This is the determined goal of all whose
instructions are found in this book—a goal which they have not yet attained and
a mode of life which they have not yet perfected. They are, nevertheless,
unalterably upon their way and that way is the WAY. Christ said "I am the
Way, the Truth and the Life"; these aspirants, working under a great
Disciple of the Christ, are beginning to grasp some of the significances and
implications of that statement which holds true for all time and for all
disciples, because "as He is, so are we in this world."

The work with this particular
group began twelve years ago. Each person's instructions are given in their
ordered sequence, year by year, so that a real picture of the person concerned,
of his problems and his achievement or lack of achievement, emerges clearly.
This book is encouraging in that it offsets the idea that to be a pledged
disciple one is, therefore, set apart by perfection of character and isolated
by the aspiration which inspires the life. These are people with problems,
struggling to solve them; with character limitations which they are
endeavouring to overcome; they are true instances of any man or woman who turns
his back upon the usual approach to the world of material affairs and takes up
his cross in order to find his way back to the Father's home; they picture for
us the man who, having "put his hand to the plough," turns not back
but presses forward "towards the prize of his high calling in Christ."

Some of these people have
worked as students in the Arcane School; others have never done so; still
others (when they heard of the school through their affiliation with the
Tibetan) worked in it in order to help the students. Their names will not be
divulged. The initials at the head of the various instructions and the dates
assigned carry no information; the [xiii] instructions
were probably not received on the dates given and the initials are none of them
correct. No information will be given by any of us who know the relation
between the initials and the disciple. Questions as to identity will not be
answered at any time. It is the subject matter of the teaching which is of
importance and not the name of the disciple for what is said is applicable to
all aspirants.

One other reason might be
mentioned here as indicative of the value of this book. In every case, the
disciple is told what are the types of energy to which he most easily responds
and upon which ray or divine emanation he finds himself. He, therefore, becomes
aware of what constitutes his line of least resistance and where the major
point of his life conflict is to be found.

We are taught in the esoteric
philosophy that seven great divine Emanations, Aeons or Spirits (in Whom we live
and move and have our being) came forth from God at the time of the Creation.
The same teaching can also be traced in the Holy Bible. Upon one or other of
these seven Rays, the souls of all forms of life are to be found as well as the
forms themselves. These seven rays produce the seven major psychological types.
These seven rays or emanations are:

1. The first Ray of Will or
Power. Many great world rulers are found on this ray, such as Julius Caesar.

2. The second Ray of
Love-Wisdom. The Christ and the Buddha are to be found on this ray. It is the
great teaching ray.

3. The third Ray of Active
Intelligence. The mass of intelligent humanity are found on this ray.

4. The fourth Ray of Harmony
through Conflict. Aspirants. Struggling, well-meaning people. Workers for unity
emerge along this line.

5. The fifth Ray of Concrete
Knowledge or Science. Scientists and people who are purely mental and governed
only by the mind.

6. The sixth Ray of Devotion
or Idealism. Many Christian people. Fanatics. Numbers of earnest Churchmen of
all the world religions.

[xiv]
7. The seventh Ray of Ceremonial
Order or Magic. Masons. Financiers. Great businessmen and organisers of all
kinds. Executives are found with these energies in their equipment.

However, only when a man is
highly developed and nearing the Path of Discipleship is it possible for the
esoteric student accurately to surmise what his ray may be. People of all kinds
and professions are found on all the rays. The conflict in a disciple's life is
found to lie in the fact that the ray of his soul and the ray of his integrated
personality are posed against each other. At the same time, his emotional
nature, his mental equipment and his physical brain are also controlled by some
one or other of the rays and in this fivefold relationship lies hid much of the
problem of the evolving human being. The Tibetan tells the members of His group
which five rays condition them and students will learn much by a study of what
He says. In the cases where I happen to know the disciple concerned personally
and something of his problems, it was amazingly interesting to me to note how
infallibly right the Tibetan was in His diagnosis of the rays involved. In
reading these instructions will you please remember that though the Tibetan
usually speaks of the soul, He also uses the word "ego"
interchangeably, meaning thereby the spiritual ego and not the personal ego of
the psychologists.

We have not felt it wise to
give the meditations assigned or the breathing exercises, except in a few
cases. They were strictly individual and suited to the person and his peculiar
problems. In one or two cases, however, after due consideration, we have
inserted some of the meditations with slight changes. It was obvious that they could
be only helpful.

At the end of each
instruction, we have put a sentence or two which gives information as to the
work of the disciple in the Ashram. This will prove particularly enlightening
as, for instance, in the cases of P.D.W. and K.E.S. where the Tibetan shows
definite prevision and the knowledge that both these men would die a few years
later. He is obviously preparing them for that great transition.

In closing, I would like to
thank all these disciples who have so kindly placed their personal instructions
at my disposal [xv]
in an effort to be of service to the
coming generation of disciples. In many cases, they helped prepare them for the
press. I would like also to thank those who helped me to get the text ready for
publication, particularly Joseph Lovejoy who gave days of labour to the book;
he has for years helped me prepare the Tibetan's books for publication.

I hope all who read this book
will receive the inspiration that we who have prepared it have received; I hope
also that their confidence in the Hierarchy and in the existence of Christ and
His Disciples, the Masters, may receive such an impetus that many more will
attempt to tread the Way and join the great number of aspirants in every
country who are seeking to tread the Path by becoming the Path Itself.